A popular sport in the United States is bow hunting. Most areas of the United States and other countries of the world which have large population of animals, such as deer, wild turkey or the like, have specific hunting days set aside limited for use by bow hunters. In addition, bow hunting is typically permitted during times that also permit hunting with guns.
A typical means of hunting for large game animals, such as deer, is for the hunter to position himself in a tree, or other high elevation, in an area frequented by the game. From this vantage point, the hunter can then wait for the approach of the game. Obviously, a problem for the hunter is attracting game to move in the direction in which the hunter has stationed himself. It has long been known that animals, and particularly game animals, are acutely sensitive to odor, and particular odor produced by animals of the same species. For this reason, it has been a practice to utilize animal attracting scent in the hunting of animals and such scent is readily commercially available. The scent is in liquid form and may be dispensed in a variety of ways for attracting the attention of the animals to be hunted and when the scent is spread on the earth's surface, it can be useful in causing animals to move in the direction most favorable for the hunter.
One problem with the use of liquid scent in hunting is that it is difficult to place and spread the scent without also spreading the scent of the hunter. If the animal to be attracted is aware of the presence of a hunter, or any other scent to which the animal is not accustom, the effectiveness of the commercially prepared scent in attracting animals to move in a preferred direction is substantially reduced. For this reason, others have provided arrows that can be used for dispensing scent producing liquids. As an example U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,743 entitled "Scent Head Arrow" provides an arrow having a large scent head container affixed to the forward end thereof. The scent head container includes a fibrous scent filled carrier that can contain animal scent. A problem with the scent head arrow of U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,743 is that the scent must be applied by the hunter to the fibrous material and in the process it is difficult for the hunter also to not impart some of his own scent to the arrow. Further, this requires the hunter to carry with him a container of the liquid scent that must be opened and utilized immediately to launching of the arrow.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,528,662 entitled "Material Dispensing Projectile" discloses a concept of a projectile that can be launched or fired and has means at the forward end of the projectile for dispensing a scent upon contact. The projectile of this disclosure, however, is not adaptable for use by a bow hunter, that is, the projectile is not adaptable to be used in the form of an arrow. Further, the apparatus disclosed in this patent is fairly complex and expensive to manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,584 discloses a scent releasing arrow wherein a pad is soaked with liquid scent. The pad is placed within a tubular arrow and a sleeve is placed over the arrow. The arrow is then fired and the sleeve is displaced exposing the liquid soaked pad. The system of this disclosure provides no means of positively releasing a liquid scent upon impact of the arrow nor a means whereby the liquid scent can be carried in cartridges but, instead, requires the hunter to pour the liquid scent from a container to saturate the material within the arrow.
The present disclosure overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art exemplified by these three previously issued United States patents and provides an improved arrow for use by a bow hunter for attracting game.